Meenal Datta, PhD profile page

Dr. Meenal Datta is the Jane Schoelch DeFlorio Collegiate Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and is an associate professor at the University of Notre Dame. Datta received her PhD in chemical and biological engineering from Tufts University in 2018 under the mentorship of Dr. Rakesh K. Jain at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, where she also completed her postdoctoral fellowship, before starting her faculty position in 2021. Datta’s research focuses on the tumor microenvironment, which is biologically, chemically, electrically, and mechanically abnormal compared to healthy tissues that drive disease progression and treatment resistance in incurable cancers. She specializes in multidisciplinary and mechanism-based preclinical approaches that reveal and reprogram abnormal tumor microenvironment. As the director of the Tumor Immune Microenvironment & Mechanics (TIME) Lab at Notre Dame, Datta’s research explores immunomechanics and mechano-immunology in health and disease to discover novel biophysical mechanisms that can be targeted therapeutically to enhance treatment outcomes in cancer and other diseases. The TIME Lab further explores the impact of abnormal mechanics on tumor metabolism, epigenetics, and host organ damage. Datta’s lab also conducts cancer research in space (e.g., on the International Space Station) to test novel modeling and treatment approaches using health avatars such as organoids grown in microgravity. Datta has received numerous awards in support of her research including an NIH K22 career transition award (2021), an NIH R35 award for early-stage investigators (2023), an AFOSR Young Investigator Program award (2025), and an NSF CAREER award (2026).